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How many times has it been that you’re delivering an office presentation where you have to hand out documents with bar charts, histograms, and other detailed requirements?
You must make sure that the documents are well formatted and persuasive, right? You have to make sure that the printed files do not have blown out ink spots, or areas where the ink is too light to see.
A clear, well-formatted, and readable document is crucial under these circumstances. But we’ve all been victims to flawed print outs before, which is usually a nuance although it doesn’t have to be.
- Your purchase includes One HP OfficeJet...
- Item dimensions: 23 inches Width x 18.38...
- Print, scan and copy in sizes up to...
- Includes Two 250-sheet input trays....
- Never shop for ink again: With Amazon...
- Decent speed
- Better quality than its competitors
- Supports A3 and super A3
- WiFi, direct wireless connectivity
- higher running costs
- Large and heavy
- Low recommended duty cycle
The all in one HP 7740 office printer ensures that you’re fully accommodated in this regard by providing vibrant, high-quality color prints that cost up to 50 percent less per page than a color laser.
Not only that, but this A3 printer can also fax, scan, and copy documents, and it also comes with double paper trays. Now, this is all said and done, but is the printer good with other materials, and is it efficient with ink usage?
These are the questions we intend to answer for you in this review, so let’s dive right in!!
It’s essential to know about the best and maybe not so best features of the HP 7740 before we get into the detailed description of its functions.
Verdict
Overall, the HP 7740 printer is a brilliant device for office usage, it’s in the range of the upper-class OfficeJet series of inkjet printers. There are a lot of options in Officejet series. I reviewed HP officejet pro 8710 and 820 last month. Both are pretty good. But this one seems less expensive which is pretty good.
A printing speed of 22 black or 18 colored pages per minute makes it an ideal machine for printing and scanning office files and other A3 documents. You can even store a full ream of papers in each of the 250 sheet paper trays.
In other words, the HP 7740 is an ideal printer for small to medium offices that generally require printing on A3 size papers. If you are looking for a wider format printer, you should consider buying one of 11×17 printer which are specifically designed for office use.
The recommended duty cycle for the machine is about 1,500 prints per month, for optimum quality. However, if you feel like printing more, it’s more suitable to look at other MFC printers.
There have been some concerns with regards to the paper size. This is just a simple fact; any 11×17″ paper will most likely be expensive. But quality printouts demand extra bucks, so, if you want to get the best photos from your wide format printer, be prepared to spend some extra money.
People have also complained about high maintenance, mainly due to broken printers because of using generic cartridges. This brings us to another issue you have to be wary of; only use branded cartridges for the HP 7740, or you’ll end up with a busted printer.
1. Functions
The all in one OfficeJet 7740 provides an array of features and functions.
If you’re a fan of large format prints, the 7740 has you covered since it supports wide-format printing; besides that, the machine provides dual-side and professional quality printing features. The device includes the functionality of printing, scanning, faxing, and copying in a standout quality.
You’re promised to receive vibrant graphics and clear dark text on sizes, from letters to tabloids. These functionalities are provided for documents up to A3 in size.
Talking about the printing speed, you’ll be pretty satisfied since the machine prints at a rate of 22 pages per minute (ppm) for monochrome and 18 ppm in color.
The resulting documents and files will look neat, crisp, and clean, thanks to the 4800×1200 resolution. Not only that, but the device can also store up to 500 pages thanks to its twin paper trays. You can store the standard A3 in one and super A3 in the other.
Thanks to the automatic duplexing, you’ll be able to scan and print on both sides of the paper, the printer also comes with the automatic document feeder (ADF) which can feed up to 35 sheets at a time.
In short, this device is perfect for any small-scale business or home usage. One thing you need to keep in mind is that even though the page-per-month duty cycle is 30,000 on paper; you can only print up to 1,500 documents for optimum quality, this is the recommended duty cycle for the HP 7740 printer.
2. Connectivity
The HP OfficeJet all in one 7740 printer comes with wireless capabilities, meaning you can print files and documents from your tablets and smartphones. It works for each of the Android, Apple, and Windows operating systems.
Thanks to the WiFi direct setup, you can easily print from your smart devices through wireless printing.
The printer is compatible with the Apple AirPrint, and it also supports printing from Google Cloud print. The device does not include PostScript but does support PCL drivers.
The all in one HP 7740 also comes with wired printing choices; the device has a USB to connect with your computer and ethernet to connect with a wired LAN.
3. Portability
Perhaps, the greatest disadvantage of the OfficeJet HP 7740 is its portability; the HP 7740 is a heavy and large device, with its exact measurements being 15.1 inches high, 23 inches wide, and a depth of 18 inches.
The machine weighs 42.9 pounds or 19.45 Kgs. Knowing these dimensions, it is preferable and more suitable to set the printer on a desk or a bench.
To avoid any breakage by fall; it is recommended that two people should do the moving work when and if required. Being heavily set makes the device a proper companion for your home-based office with its designated position permanently reserved.
4. Display
An essential feature of any interactive device is its display; many old printers had a terrible touch quality where you had to press hard to ensure the operation was set in motion.
This isn’t true with the HP 7740; the printer comes with a 2.7-inch LCD display that is smooth to the touch and manages all of the printing and scanning tasks impeccably. The colored screen display provides a comfortable user interface that is easy to navigate.
A touch-sensitive border surrounds the display, and just below the screen, you can find a USB thumb drive port; this is included so you can upload and print any documents or images from your computer. Surely, with the print quality of the HP 7740, you’re in for some high-quality print outs.
5. Output Quality:
Of course, when we talk about a printer, the output quality is what mostly concerns people, as it should.
If a printer has a sleek design and an attractive user interface, these are merely plus points; bonuses to the main requirement, which is the output quality.
Fortunately, with the HP OfficeJet 7740, you’ll receive an above-average text for an inkjet, extremely crisp graphics, and above-par photos.
The text appears to be on par with most office requirements except for those who require tiny fonts, which generally isn’t the case with inkjets.
Having said that, there is a minuscule flaw in the graphics; there is a small level of banding in some backgrounds, but most users will not notice these little discrepancies.
As mentioned earlier, in a meeting when you’re distributing PowerPoint files to clients and colleagues, you can rest assured that the text and graphics combination will deliver an impressive and persuasive impression on the meeting members.
If you’re someone who likes to take photographs occasionally and print the best ones for your bedroom, the HP 7740 delivers images that are a tad bit better in quality than drug store prints.
6. Print Speed:
With a print out rate of 22 pages per minute of monochrome and 18 pages of color, the OfficeJet 7740 delivers an impressive print speed.
Of course, there is no direct way of comparing it to other good quality printers. However, we can easily say that 7740’s printing speed is an impressive one.
There was one test conducted; it was a comparison between the Brother MFC J5720DW and the all in one OfficeJet HP 7740.
Both printers were fed with an identical pair of PowerPoint and PDF documents. For both of the documents, the HP 7740 printed them in less than half the time it took the Brother MFC J5720DW.
7. Ink Cost
Talking about the running/ink cost, the all in one HP 7740 has a running cost of 2.1 cents per monochrome and 8.1 cents per color page, based on the HP’s price and yield numbers. Good figures, nonetheless, these are not the best.
The contender who lost to the HP 7740 in the speed test, wins in the running cost department. With a cost of 1.7 cents per monochrome and 7.6 cents per colored paper, the MFC J5720DW is more economical and affordable.
A built-in feature with the HP 7740 is, it tracks your ink usage, and when the cartridges are near their finishing point, it automatically reorders the original HP 952 cartridges. This can be a deal-breaker for some people since original cartridges cost more than generic ones.
Having said that, it is better to spend some extra bucks and use original cartridges instead of using generic ones and ending up with a busted printer. On the bright side, the printer comes with a free starter ink pack to get you started with your printing tasks.
8. Conclusion
Throughout this review, we have seen more pros than cons, from high-speed printing to excellent output quality documents.
The built-in features of twin trays that provide a generous capacity to hold up to 500 papers and the array of connection choices, both wired and wireless, with the capability of printing on paper up to tabloid size, make the all in one OfficeJet HP 7740 a promising piece of printing machinery.
However, there were some definite lows for the HP 7740. For example, if you print a lot and want to save money, the Brother MFC J5720DW would be a much better choice as it’s running costs are lower.
Having said that, the MFC J5720DW doesn’t come close to matching the output quality of the HP 7740, there’s a world of difference in the speed department as well, with the HP 7740 being twice as fast than the MFC J5720DW.
To conclude, if you want a quality device for your home-based office or any other small-scale usage, that prints fast with good quality output, you have to be ready to spend some extra money.